| Yakuzaice said: My point was that Monster Hunter was a growing series that continued growing on portables. People always like to say it was the best selling console MH as if there had been numerous console versions that couldn't break a sales barrier. If the situation were identical except it was the PS2 32 months in instead of the Wii, do you think it would have topped out at ~1 million? Also the sales targets were 2 million by the end of the fiscal year (March 31, 2010). I'm not sure if it was official or just speculated, but it was generally seen as 1.5 million in Japan and 500k in the west. Now obviously it got delayed so the western release missed the fiscal year, but it's safe to say the lifetime sales were below expectations. To be fair capcom was particularly terrible with their expectations last year, but I wouldn't say their Tri number was too outrageous. Do you really think Capcom was completely happy investing all that money in Tri only for it to be outsold by 2G a mere 7 weeks in. Back in 2007 when Tri made the switch to Wii Capcom said "We believe that by bringing the Monster Hunter series to multiple platforms, it will help the franchise reach an even-greater number of users eager for its unique gameplay." They also cited high PS3 development costs as a reason for the switch. In your honest opinion if Capcom could go back in time and make the decision again, would they stick with the Wii or go with the PSP? It also seems a bit odd to call it an "unqualified success" when these arguments always abound with comments like. |
Monster Hunter 3's sales growth is exactly in line with the previous climb the console entries had, they basically doubled from MH1 to MH2 to MH3, so yeah I think best case on PS2 it would've topped out around the same as it did on Wii. I mean, MHG on Wii sold exactly what it did on PS2, and it was an exact port, released years later, with pay-to-play online, and only worked with the classic controller. And yeah, the series fundamentally took off on handhelds, but that was hardly a natural sales growth... MH catapulted to the 2nd best selling 3rd party series (only behind perennial favorite Dragon Quest), and it's meteroic rise was so big it single handedly made it's platform viable again (a feat only Mario and Pokemon can really claim to have done in Japan before).
Capcom's initial sales target was 2m for the end of fiscal 2010 (ie: March 2010), but that was assuming a western release within that period as well. We never got any updated ww target, or a regional breakdown of the 2m expectation, but in everything out of Capcom since they've said the game met or exceeded their targets. The only thing "safe to say" regarding MH3 sales, it that it's at least done what Capcom expected ultimately, given that's what they've repeatedly stated. And considering it cost 4 times what P2G did at the same time, and brought in subscription revenue that exceeded expectations, I don't think Capcom mind it's raw sales numbers didn't match P2G. Capcom clearly never expected it to match P2G in any way, so I'm not sure what your angle is there exactly?
If Capcom could go back in time and pick between Wii and PS3 again, I bet they'd go with the Nintendo deal. The western push was hugely important to MH3 (and it's worked out to some degree, according to Capcom it's already the best selling MH in the west and that's only through it's first quarter), and Nintendo's support there was likely the key reason they got the game imo. I call it an unqualified success because it is, Capcom's said so. I just like to pile on supporting figures, even though I don't actually need to... all I need is what Capcom's said themselves.
